[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] leoport:
Impressions and comparison to Galaxy keyboard dock

I've been using the dock for a few days now and I have mixed feelings. I'm coming from a Galaxy Tab 10.1--with its stand-up keyboard dock--so the idea of having a dock that collapses in a natural way was one of the Prime (hehe) reasons I got the TFP+dock combo. Even though I'm going to be a bit critical here, there are definite benefits to the dock (like the added I/O and extended battery).

- The keyboard keys are squishy. Typing on the keys doesn't offer the feedback/clickiness that I'm used to with my other keyboards--and even the Galaxy's keyboard dock (it's very nice)

- The custom keys could have been better. I really liked having the app-switcher, menu/options, system/notification panel, and "All Apps" as hard keys (like on the Galaxy keyboard dock). I know these are on the screen at all times (except for "All Apps"), but you end up using them quite frequently and they really accelerate your workflow while using the tablet. Other keys I would have liked is a dedicated Gmail button (I'm sure we're all in that app a lot). Hitting "Home" then tapping "All Apps" is annoying. Having dedicated keys for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth seem unnecessary... how often do we turn those on and off within a session? Using the touch controls to get there (or using the dedicated settings button to get there) at the beginning of a session should be sufficient. Also, do the Fn keys do anything useful? Is it just for PgUp/Dn Home/End? Seems like Asus could have uses more useful keys here also. And why do 1, 6, Up, and Down have circles around them?

- The trackpad seemed like a good idea, but I don't find it useful. Hopefully this will change in ICS, but Android wasn't made for a mouse cursor. Because there are no hover states or other feedback, the OS doesn't react too well to its movement. Trying to insert the cursor in the right place in a text entry field is not accurate (it's a disaster trying to do it within the reply form on XDA). The click areas are strange... does right-click always go back? That's a pretty dangerous key to accidentally hit--and with no markings on the trackpad to tell you, it probably won't be uncommon to right-click by mistake. Why didn't they map this to long-press (contextual options). Seems like that would have been the natural translation. And finally, two-finger scrolling is a bit jittery and shoddy.

- The tablet portion isn't as stable as I would like. Because there are missing keys/shortcuts to some of the on-screen buttons, I tap the screen quite a bit within a session. The weight of the tablet causes screen to flex/move when I tap on in (I don't mash my finger on the screen). The Samsung keyboard dock is not the fold-down type--which is not ideal--but because of the docking mechanism, it holds the tablet portion stable when interacting with the screen.

Overall, I'm definitely a fan of the foldable keyboard dock. Using Android with the Galaxy's dock-in keyboard blew my mind--so I was extremely excited about the Prime ;-) These are just some of my gripes that's I've been noting while using the device. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I had not used the Galaxy keyboard.